Clonea Look to Bounce Past Garryspillane

Munster Club Championship hurling comes to Dungarvan on Sunday afternoon when Waterford champions Clonea and Limerick champions Garryspillane do battle at Fraher Field with the game having a 1-30pm throw in.

Clonea advanced to this game by virtue of beating Clashmore at the Shandon Road venue two weeks ago, while the Limerick side qualified last weekend when they proved too strong for Bruff at Kilmallock.

Callum Sheehan proved to be the hero of the hour for the County Limerick side last weekend as he netted a goal in each half helping his side record a 2-12 to 0-12 victory.

That win means that Garryspillane will re-enter the senior championship in the Treaty County for the first time in five years after they were relegated after different championships in the County were restructured with fewer sides allowed to compete in the senior championship, back in 2014 when 8 teams formed a new look Premier Intermediate Championship. Prior to their relegation in the new look championship Garryspillane had played Senior Hurling for 17 years after winning the Intermediate championship back in 1996.

Clonea too will compete in the Senior Championship next year after over a decade away from top flight hurling, in which the side from under the Comeragh Mountains twice contested the County Intermediate final, losing to Dungarvan in 2009 and last year to An Rinn.

Apart from the already mentioned Callum Sheehan veteran Donie Ryan, a brother of former Limerick player TJ who is the team’s manager played an integral part for the winning side landing eight points, six of which came from placed balls, while TJ’s son Colin gave a solid performance in the middle of the field.

The Bouncers were 1-7 to 0-5 in front at the break in that game and with twelve minutes of the game remaining they looked to be out of sight as they were 2-11 to 0-5 in front.

The winners however took their foot off the gas at this stage and once Bruff had scored their first score of the second half with eleven minutes remaining they hit a total of eleven scores in those closing minutes, conceding just the one, something that may have given the Clonea management team plenty of home going into this weekends game if they can keep a close eye on the Limerick sides attacking players and also proving to be very disciplined.

Clonea in their County final win over Clashmore showed the same guts and determination as Bruff in the Limerick County Final last week, except for them that determination paid off as Clonea hit two late scores (1-1) to win this game by three points when it looked as many inside the sizeable contingent at Fraher Field were going to win a maiden Intermediate Hurling County Final.

Clonea went into that game as the warmest of favourites but they were made to work hard by Clashmore and as time ticked down it looked as if it was going to be second time unlucky in twelve months having lost out to An Rinn in the final twelve months ago.

This is an experienced Clonea side as Garryspillane will find out when they take to the field. Whether the Limerick side had the chance to see Clonea in the County Final is unknown as the Championship’s in Limerick ran very late as a result of Limerick reaching and winning this year’s All-Ireland Final.

If they did see their opponents play then they will know that there is some fine hurlers in the Clonea side, including the likes of Billy Power who impressed hitting seven points in the county final, but also the likes of Robbie Power and Ronan Cahill who netted the goals in their win over Clashmore, while the likes of Jason Gleeson, Stephen Power, Willie Hahessy, Robert Flynn, Martin Scurry and Michael Curry will need careful watching.

This is a game that will need finishing on the day and the two sides will be fancying their chances of progressing to a meeting with Clare side Feakle next weekend.

Garryspillane’s experience of playing in the senior championship in Limerick should stand to them but while Clonea’s players as hurlers will not have played much in Fraher Field because of the divisional divide that exists in Waterford, they have done so plenty of times with Rathgormack in football and will know every blade of grass in the field, and if they were to draw as big as support as they had in the County Final recently proving to be the sixteenth man on the day, they are good enough to advance.